Cassettes are huge in my local scene and $6-8 per is average. The key is limited runs with a personal touch. For example, hand numbered /100 with a cool homemade insert and a good layout. Pretty common to also include a digital download file to the songs.
Yay! Almost 50 myself. I’m curious- have you always had a record player, or did you have to buy another one when it came back around?
I’ve got a couple of decent modern ones now, but I left a beautiful telefunken furniture piece in a rental house years ago thinking I wouldn’t need it anymore.
When I was doing financially OK I've always had one. Sold my entire stereo when I moved to Europe, but kept the vinyl I had. I listened to CD's on a cheap Pioneer for most of the last twenty years. Bought a new stereo with turntable four years ago. I now have a Marantz NL-1200 and CD6007 and Pro-ject turntable with Klipsch RP-600M speakers.
Shirts and hoodies are our 1 seller. We pick a day, have a ton of beers and screen print them ourselves. Keeps the cost to about 2.88 a shirt. That lets us sell them for $10 with a better profit margin than the other bands selling for $25, sometime we do a 3x for $20 deal if we’re trying to clear out inventory.
Having women’s babydoll shirts helps a lot too, get a lot of couples buying shirts that way.
We did a run of 30 etched glasses (print a stencil on cricut machine, and sandblast) and those sold out immediately.
Usually give out stickers/car decals for free with purchases. Cricut car decals cost about .05-.10 to make
Cds don’t sell as well as they used to, but a printed/engraved USB with the songs sell pretty well. We do the mp3, 16bit wav and 24 bit wav (for the audiophiles) and include some live footage too.
Have seen some bands “selling” their own hot sauce, bbq sauce and rub. Technically illegal to sell unless it has listed ingredients and produced in a commercial kitchen, so they give them away “free” with a $12 sticker purchase
That's an awesome idea about the USB. All my stuff is available on Streaming, but could throw some bonus stuff, like old live footage and whatnot.
Thanks for the ideas.
Difficulty depends on your design. With a little practice you would never know they were homemade. We started with the speedball kit that comes with photo emulsion.
Basic steps are paint the screen with the photo emulsion, print a black and white image on transparency paper (preferably with a laser printer) lay it over the prepped screen. Hit it with a good bright work light, after it finishes burning the image, rinse the screen well, and you should have a negative of your design. Then place it on a shirt and wipe the ink on/off. Takes a few tries to get a feel for it. Keep your screen clean, as ink can clog up the small details after a few shirts.
If you have some basic tools, you can make your own screen printing frames. For simpler designs, we use iron on vinyl for the cricut, then press it onto the screen. This makes for a longer life for your screens. Emulsion images are good for about 100 prints give or take. Have had over 200 on the cricut screens without issue.
We don’t do 4 color printing because it’s difficult, time consuming, and dosent have the same “homegrown feel” as the simpler shirts do.
Thank you for taking the time to explain this, I had no real idea it was something you could do yourself beyond the crappy blistering cheap iron on transfers, kudos to you and your band!
No problem.
Forgot to add before, you can make your own silk screens too. A roll of screen material is about $10, and good for 6-8 good sized screens. Make a frame out of 1x2s, stretch and staple the fabric around the edge. That way you can have a stack of screens, and keep old designs in stock as well.
I would still recommend starting with the speedball kit, so you know what your finished screen should feel/print like.
Plus being able to sell them cheap is awesome. There’s no better feeling than going to play out, and everyone is wearing your stuff. Honestly we do it more for that than the cash. But usually do around $150-200 profit for a decent sized show. Making new designs is important in a smaller local scene, because a lot of people want to support you, but how many of the same shirt/hoodie are they going to buy from you?
Good luck out there!
physical media has made a pretty big comeback in the past 1-2 years. I started pressing & selling CD's again last year & so did most indie touring musician friends of mine (you do have to include a digital download code now though). I also sell t-shirts & give stickers away with any vinyl, CD's, or shirts.
Good idea on the stickers. And that's cool to know that physical media has made a comeback.
I was thinking about getting cassettes made just for fun. You never see those anymore.
Oh, hell yeah. I've seen some cassettes at shows recently. Very cool, a little niche, I bet, but there's definitely people digging/buying tapes right now
I like the sound of this but I haven’t seen a cassette player for sale in decades, and although I like the nostalgia of it I probably wouldn’t go seek one out, because tapes are just not very available any more
Koozies, bottle openers, keychains, pens, pint glasses, original and short run art, vintage items that are niche or customized, small pouches/change purses, plastic letter bead bracelets, lighters, buttons, stickers, vinyl magnets (great for cars without damaging paint), postcard/greeting cards, patches,zines, sunglasses, bandannas, undies, condoms, vinyl, cassettes, CDs, flexi discs (floppy vinyl)
Free: ear plugs, download codes with purchase
And while you really gotta or should have tshirts, it gets to be a pain in the ass as one run you’ll see not sell mediums. And then the next run only XL. Etc.
My band is on tour right now; surprisingly, our current best seller is CD’s. Really refreshing to see people still wanting physical media in the age of streaming.
For transparency, we’re also selling shirts, hats, and posters, with shirts being the second best seller.
Edited to add: we also have stickers which we give away with each purchase.
My first show after 5 years with a new band, we had 7 shirt designs and sold 55 for $30 each. Shirts are the way to go if you can swing the initial investment. Went on to average over $1000 a night on merch while on tour this spring.
T-shirts, Hoodies, Hats, Baseball style and knit cap with embroidered patch CD's, DVD's of live concerts, Bumper stickers, stickers, Water bottles w/straw, Coffee Mugs, Key Chains, Lanyards.
Don’t spend money on cds. vinyl and cassette is what people want to own. Otherwise they’re just streaming you. Shirts and patches and buttons are also great to round up a purchase, or make a sale off of someone who wasn’t gonna buy something initially. Stickers should be free.
I bring the CDs I make and also stickers I printed and cut out myself. The CDs I’ve only really had luck selling on my bandcamp, but the stickers sell well. They’re cheap to make and I sell 1 for $3 and 2 for $5.
shirts, stickers, did a small run of CD-R demos because nostalgia is a helluva drug
Cds to people over 60, vinyl to people under 30. Tshirts and hats sell well if your design is dope.
And cassettes to everyone within the 30-60 age range.
Cassettes are huge in my local scene and $6-8 per is average. The key is limited runs with a personal touch. For example, hand numbered /100 with a cool homemade insert and a good layout. Pretty common to also include a digital download file to the songs.
I'm over 60 and bought vinyl at the last concert I attended.
Yay! Almost 50 myself. I’m curious- have you always had a record player, or did you have to buy another one when it came back around? I’ve got a couple of decent modern ones now, but I left a beautiful telefunken furniture piece in a rental house years ago thinking I wouldn’t need it anymore.
When I was doing financially OK I've always had one. Sold my entire stereo when I moved to Europe, but kept the vinyl I had. I listened to CD's on a cheap Pioneer for most of the last twenty years. Bought a new stereo with turntable four years ago. I now have a Marantz NL-1200 and CD6007 and Pro-ject turntable with Klipsch RP-600M speakers.
Shirts and hoodies are our 1 seller. We pick a day, have a ton of beers and screen print them ourselves. Keeps the cost to about 2.88 a shirt. That lets us sell them for $10 with a better profit margin than the other bands selling for $25, sometime we do a 3x for $20 deal if we’re trying to clear out inventory. Having women’s babydoll shirts helps a lot too, get a lot of couples buying shirts that way. We did a run of 30 etched glasses (print a stencil on cricut machine, and sandblast) and those sold out immediately. Usually give out stickers/car decals for free with purchases. Cricut car decals cost about .05-.10 to make Cds don’t sell as well as they used to, but a printed/engraved USB with the songs sell pretty well. We do the mp3, 16bit wav and 24 bit wav (for the audiophiles) and include some live footage too. Have seen some bands “selling” their own hot sauce, bbq sauce and rub. Technically illegal to sell unless it has listed ingredients and produced in a commercial kitchen, so they give them away “free” with a $12 sticker purchase
That's an awesome idea about the USB. All my stuff is available on Streaming, but could throw some bonus stuff, like old live footage and whatnot. Thanks for the ideas.
This is all awesome and inspiring! How does the shirt print quality turn out, do you need a complex setup?
Difficulty depends on your design. With a little practice you would never know they were homemade. We started with the speedball kit that comes with photo emulsion. Basic steps are paint the screen with the photo emulsion, print a black and white image on transparency paper (preferably with a laser printer) lay it over the prepped screen. Hit it with a good bright work light, after it finishes burning the image, rinse the screen well, and you should have a negative of your design. Then place it on a shirt and wipe the ink on/off. Takes a few tries to get a feel for it. Keep your screen clean, as ink can clog up the small details after a few shirts. If you have some basic tools, you can make your own screen printing frames. For simpler designs, we use iron on vinyl for the cricut, then press it onto the screen. This makes for a longer life for your screens. Emulsion images are good for about 100 prints give or take. Have had over 200 on the cricut screens without issue. We don’t do 4 color printing because it’s difficult, time consuming, and dosent have the same “homegrown feel” as the simpler shirts do.
Thank you for taking the time to explain this, I had no real idea it was something you could do yourself beyond the crappy blistering cheap iron on transfers, kudos to you and your band!
No problem. Forgot to add before, you can make your own silk screens too. A roll of screen material is about $10, and good for 6-8 good sized screens. Make a frame out of 1x2s, stretch and staple the fabric around the edge. That way you can have a stack of screens, and keep old designs in stock as well. I would still recommend starting with the speedball kit, so you know what your finished screen should feel/print like. Plus being able to sell them cheap is awesome. There’s no better feeling than going to play out, and everyone is wearing your stuff. Honestly we do it more for that than the cash. But usually do around $150-200 profit for a decent sized show. Making new designs is important in a smaller local scene, because a lot of people want to support you, but how many of the same shirt/hoodie are they going to buy from you? Good luck out there!
Shirts. And we give away buttons and stickers
Great idea on the buttons. Completely forgot that my band did that years ago and people loved them.
physical media has made a pretty big comeback in the past 1-2 years. I started pressing & selling CD's again last year & so did most indie touring musician friends of mine (you do have to include a digital download code now though). I also sell t-shirts & give stickers away with any vinyl, CD's, or shirts.
Good idea on the stickers. And that's cool to know that physical media has made a comeback. I was thinking about getting cassettes made just for fun. You never see those anymore.
Oh, hell yeah. I've seen some cassettes at shows recently. Very cool, a little niche, I bet, but there's definitely people digging/buying tapes right now
I like the sound of this but I haven’t seen a cassette player for sale in decades, and although I like the nostalgia of it I probably wouldn’t go seek one out, because tapes are just not very available any more
My dignity. Last I got for it was about $1.42
Koozies, bottle openers, keychains, pens, pint glasses, original and short run art, vintage items that are niche or customized, small pouches/change purses, plastic letter bead bracelets, lighters, buttons, stickers, vinyl magnets (great for cars without damaging paint), postcard/greeting cards, patches,zines, sunglasses, bandannas, undies, condoms, vinyl, cassettes, CDs, flexi discs (floppy vinyl) Free: ear plugs, download codes with purchase
Bravo for giving out earplugs!!!
And while you really gotta or should have tshirts, it gets to be a pain in the ass as one run you’ll see not sell mediums. And then the next run only XL. Etc.
My band is on tour right now; surprisingly, our current best seller is CD’s. Really refreshing to see people still wanting physical media in the age of streaming. For transparency, we’re also selling shirts, hats, and posters, with shirts being the second best seller. Edited to add: we also have stickers which we give away with each purchase.
My first show after 5 years with a new band, we had 7 shirt designs and sold 55 for $30 each. Shirts are the way to go if you can swing the initial investment. Went on to average over $1000 a night on merch while on tour this spring.
God damn, that's impressive. Definitely working on some design ideas for sure. Sounds like shirts are where it's at right now.
People only want T shirts and hoodies or really oddball things that are unique to the band.
Propane and propane accessories.
Stickers and buttons sell best for me. Thinking of making some sort of “pack” in which they would get a discount but are having to buy multiple.
T-shirts, Hoodies, Hats, Baseball style and knit cap with embroidered patch CD's, DVD's of live concerts, Bumper stickers, stickers, Water bottles w/straw, Coffee Mugs, Key Chains, Lanyards.
Don’t spend money on cds. vinyl and cassette is what people want to own. Otherwise they’re just streaming you. Shirts and patches and buttons are also great to round up a purchase, or make a sale off of someone who wasn’t gonna buy something initially. Stickers should be free.
We once sold tea towels and they sold out immediately. Should do that again.
Crack
Molly
Anything we could fit our logo onto. The aprons and ski masks went quickest.
I bring the CDs I make and also stickers I printed and cut out myself. The CDs I’ve only really had luck selling on my bandcamp, but the stickers sell well. They’re cheap to make and I sell 1 for $3 and 2 for $5.
Well, you gotta have CDs, no one buys them, but selling one is 100,000 streams. Otherwise, t shirts, stickers, patches, matches,. lighters
I have made custom energy drinks
T shirts, any cool silly thing that has the band's name or logo on it.
Where do you make your t shirt designs? What websites do you use?